Critical Response
"Chocolate Rain" is known for Tay Zonday's deep voice and his mannerisms while singing. David Lowe of The Sun characterized Zonday's voice as being "gravelly as Rod Stewart but alas without the groove", expressing no surprise at Zonday's lack of formal musical training. Other reviews have been more favorable. Garth Montgomery of The Daily Telegraph praises the song's "hypnotic quality" while criticizing its "cheesy drum loop".
The melody and the drum track of the song have also been criticised extensively by the gaming community for being overly derivative of the title music from the SNES game UN Squadron.
During a brief interview on The Opie and Anthony Show, Zonday called the song "cheesy" and stated that its cryptic lyrics dealt with racism. Comments later reveal the true meaning of "Chocolate Rain" is a rhyme for "Crack Cocaine". This echoes Zonday's comments posted to the video's page on YouTube.
Many attribute the initial spread of the popularity of the song to 4chan. Zonday said,
I'm pretty sure the 'Chocolate Rain' attention started as a joke at 4chan.org, an internet forum that is credited with starting lots of popular internet phenomena. It spread to a general **I move away from the mic to breathe in** audience and people started uploading spoofs. I don't know what causes people to listen to my music. If I could speak it, there would be no reason to write songs.Read more about this topic: Chocolate Rain
Famous quotes containing the words critical and/or response:
“Post-modernism has cut off the present from all futures. The daily media add to this by cutting off the past. Which means that critical opinion is often orphaned in the present.”
—John Berger (b. 1926)
“From time to time I listen to what you are saying, just in case a response is needed.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)